Selma Baba Kallail

is honored with a Medium Paver from Joann Kamas.

In high school I dreamed of being like Jane Arden, the comic strip newspaper reporter. My mother convinced me I could do it. She dreamed of me as a university graduate. I did it--the first woman graduate in my family.

"Should I smoke cigarettes?" was the burning question of my life as a university sophomore and a sorority pledge. The popular girls did smoke. Their poised fingers and puffs of smoke seemed graceful and sophisticated. "Think for yourself, is it right for you?" is all my mother said. In the end, I decided it wasn't for me. I knew I'd never find the cigarettes and the matches in the same place at the same time.

"Think for yourself" and "you can do it" were my mother's constant admonitions as she eternally pushed and guided me though life decisions. She influences me even today. Her words influenced my children who now influence their children.

My mother was a guiding force in my life and the lives of many others. I am pleased to have the opportunity to memorialize her in the Plaza of Heroines, Wichita State University.

Submitted by Joann Kamas

July 28, 1998 (for Selma Baba Kallail)